By DCist contributor Mike Roscoe

They may have problems managing income inequality in their post-independence, Hacienda-style economies, or dealing with the lingering social effects of the brutal military dictatorships of the past, but there is one thing that South Americans have got down pat: grilling meat. As skilled and deft as any Texan tending smoking mesquite, South Americans know how to raise it, season it and cook it. From the churrascarias of Brazil to the parrillas of Argentina, they have elevated the simple process of placing protein over a flame to a culinary and cultural art form.

The Brazilian style of barbecue (churrasco) — the all-you-can-eat, gastric long-distance race of choosing different cuts of meat as they come off the grill — is amply demonstrated by Fogo de Chao in Penn Quarter, but if you’re looking for more sedate and reasonable portions, you might try the Argentine parrilla as envisioned by Divino Lounge and Restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda.

Part swish cocktail lounge, part cozy dining room, the Divino Lounge features inviting ochre walls, plump leather couches and a glowing backlit bar that can compete with any place in the city for swankiness. An open kitchen marks the transition to the dining room that sparkles with crystal, silver and candlelight. And the Argentine theme runs deep with artwork by Diego Lagache on the walls, tango dancing on Wednesdays and a wine menu that features vintages from well over a dozen Argentine vineyards.

But for all the seductive charms of the layout, the food fails to entice. We started with an appetizer of grilled sweetbreads ($10) served “Argentine-style with lemon sauce” and a chef’s selection of assorted tapas ($9). The sweetbreads, rather than being creamy within and crispy without, arrived stringy, chewy and partially burnt. The Argentine “lemon sauce” was half of a lemon served on the side. As for the chef’s selection, well, we got the distinct impression that he chose the least labor-intensive combination available (understandable, as he was talking on his cell phone at the time): a handful of mixed olives and cornichons, four paper thin triangles of cheese, two deep-fried croquettes of questionable composition and one thumb-sized chunk of chorizo split length-wise and grilled.